185 – Behind the Scenes (1)
In the northeastern border of the Duchy of Yulicia, there was a village that was not recorded on the map. Illysial Canyon. It was a strange place made of planks piled up in a damp, moss-filled canyon without sunlight.
It was a lawless area filled with murderers, vagrants, escaped convicts, smugglers, assassins, and others who would not be accepted anywhere else. There were rules, but there were no laws. Also, if you have the power, it doesn’t matter if you ignore the rules there.
A tall woman wearing a robe walked across the main street. For a woman to go there alone without any escort was tantamount to suicide, but she didn’t care. When a person’s shin bone got caught in her shoe, she kicked it away and continued on her way.
That appearance was enough to attract the attention of the outlaws.
Someone whistled at her as they watched her passing along the dirty street.
There were also people who were quietly following behind as if they had found their prey. It seemed like they didn’t know what would happen to a woman who stepped into this place alone.
“hehehe, hehehe.”
A vagabond, whose front teeth were all gone, laughed and followed her, leaving a gap between her and her.
The woman stood in front of a crumbling board building and took out her note and checked it.
[The scholar relied on Huik of Rivet.]
And on the boards of the building, ‘Hyuik’ was ignorantly written in blood, whether human or animal. Nearby, human corpses were nailed to poles and hung as if to welcome visitors. As if he wanted to publicize his possession.
“….”
The woman entered the ramshackle shack, not paying much attention to the outlaws targeting her behind her.
The stench of alcohol, sweat, and rotten food came rushing in from inside.
A group of outlaws fixing magic chains all turned around at the intrusion without knocking.
After confirming that the strange customer was a woman, he started laughing heartily.
“hehehe.”
“Hey.”
She walked to the center of the group and spoke.
“I need to meet the person in charge here.”
One of the group said.
“Hey, this b*tch needs to meet our manager!”
:”hehehehe, in charge? Who’s in charge of us?”
She did not even pretend to listen and unilaterally reported it.
“I need to meet Robert Pace, so call the person in charge right away.”
Her beautiful and calm voice was enough to stimulate the starving outlaw for a long time.
Then her outlaws stood up from her seat and surrounded her, making her giggle.
Click.
The sound of the exit lock being locked was heard from outside the building. And they stood at the exit and blocked the exit. Well then. The woman laughed to herself. The reason I was able to enter their hideout so easily was because they had cleared the way for them to easily surround it themselves. Because no one would turn down prey that comes in.
“A woman who walks on two feet cannot see the captain.”
Another member of the group shouted.
“You have to walk on all fours.”
The woman approached a nearby boat as if she didn’t want to waste time. She then grabbed her face in her palms.
The person holding her face suddenly started screaming.
Soon, smoke rose from her face along with the smell of burning flesh.
“Ugh, ugh. “aaah!”
When the woman let go of her hand, her face turned into a burnt corpse and she fell to the floor.
And again she spoke in a calm and benevolent voice.
“Call the person in charge.”
An outlaw who saw the corpse immediately shouted.
“Arrest that b*tch!”
Then her group that had ambushed her jumped out and threw luminous chains at her. Without giving her time to resist, five chains flew in at once and bound the woman at once.
The woman looked with her still face at the chains that bound her own body.
It was clearly a synthetic ore with a magic suppressing effect. They seemed to believe that even unpredictable beings such as wizards could be subdued with this.
If the wizard had been neutralized by a toy like this, he would not have been treated as valuable as he is now.
Shaking her head, she took off her hood. Then, vibrant dark red hair was revealed. She said with a slightly tired look on her face.
“Until the person in charge is called… “Now they will all burn to death one by one.”
***
Sylverine fanned her hand against her face in her tan-filled interior. No one survived after seeing Silverine there. She was skeptical about this type of trash cleanup, but she had no choice because she couldn’t leave a witness behind.
There was someone who appeared to be the leader of the group in the inner space of the hut, but his upper body was already completely charred, so there was no point in finding him.
She ran over her body, took out her keys, and pushed her body down the stairs to her basement.
Naked women were locked in the dungeon below. They covered their eyes and crouched because of the light they had not seen in a long time. Sylverine paid them no attention and walked in front of the bars where a middle-aged man wearing her glasses was standing.
It was the prison escapee she was looking for, Robert Pace.
He looked very nervous, as if he had heard all the commotion upstairs.
“Again… “I see you.”
He and Silverine were already spherical.
“I would have been more comfortable if I had stayed quiet in the principality.”
She didn’t look that good after relying on herself.
“I needed something a little more certain.”
“So this is what you found after abandoning the principality?”
“The principality is a toothless wolf. “Because we enjoyed an era of peace, the coffers are on the verge of bursting, but all the weapons are rusting and all the heroes of the past are now dead or old.”
Robert Pace was a scholar who knew a lot of particularly dangerous knowledge. The amount of knowledge accumulated was considerable due to the combination of scholarly passion and the long lifespan unique to high-ranking vampires. He was known externally as a prisoner, but in reality, he had entrusted himself to the principality for his personal safety.
One day, he realized that the principality could not guarantee his safety and left the principality.
“So you decided this place is safe?”
“If I roll here, my movements will be harder to trace. “I had to disappear from the world.”
“Seeing as how I tracked him this far, I guess he’s not good at hiding his traces.”
“… “Not everything has gone as planned yet.”
Silverine snorted.
“What were you planning to do here?”
“… “I was planning to guide the leader here to where the magic sword, ‘Igillion’s Tongue’ is hidden.”
The reason why Robert Pace was dangerous was because he was a unique mineralogist and the greatest authority on magic swords. In addition to knowing the Sword Master’s magic sword, he also had information about a yet unknown and dangerous magic sword.
“What are you going to do by guiding me through that?”
“Anyway, all of those outlaws would have lost their lives in the dungeon, let alone the magic sword. “My plan was to disappear from the world after that.”
Silverine had a question. There would be many people targeting him because he had information about the magic sword, but he was a high-ranking vampire. He was a being far superior to humans in terms of combat ability.
“You’re so meticulous. Who on earth are you trying to run away from? “I thought I was used to dealing with magic sword collectors by now.”
What is the entity that pushes him into such a corner that he refuses to protect the principality?
“If you don’t disappear, you will face a fate more miserable than death.”
Silverine spoke with a slightly more serious expression.
“Explain in detail.”
“…… A scream sword. “It’s because of the Screaming Sword.”
Silverin held his breath for a moment. I felt strange hearing the name of a sword I had only heard about in history books.
“… Is this the magic sword I know? It is said to have been made by quenching with soul. “I thought it disappeared decades ago.”
“Everyone knows that. That sword went around and eventually ended up in the hands of the dwarf race, which was completely cut off from interactions with humans.”
All dirty things flow under the ground. Dead bodies, maggots, excrement, and rainwater sweep up all kinds of waste and drag them into the ground. And human souls that have lost their bodies and become useless also sink underground.
And it is said that deep underground, where no human has ever reached and only dwarves know about, there is a black lake formed by the vengeful spirits of dead humans.
A sword of death created by dwarves facing a time of war, who quenched countless soul steels in the black lake. It was called the Screaming Sword because the sound of the soul screaming could be heard every time the sword was swung. It is said that hundreds of dwarven blacksmiths were sacrificed until the sword was created.
“Are you trying to capture me to trace the whereabouts of the Screaming Sword?”
He lowered his head and spoke with difficulty.
“No. Wrong. “The whereabouts of the secret sword have already been revealed a long time ago.”
“… What?”
His explanation was like this.
One day, a mysterious woman inquired about the whereabouts of a magical sword called ‘Screaming Sword’.
“… I felt like I was possessed by something. One day, he suddenly appeared in my lab and asked me where the magic sword was. When she appeared, all the light in the world disappeared. All lights, including oil lamps and chandeliers, were submerged in darkness. It wasn’t even a threat to me. The moment she saw the woman, cold sweat broke out all over her body and she trembled uncontrollably. I felt like my soul was sinking into the ground. My instinct remembers. She clearly wasn’t human. So I obediently told them the location.”
“If not human, what are we?”
“I don’t know either. Although I have lived for over a hundred years, I have never experienced such a being. I think that maybe, just maybe, he is something close to a warlock. Still, I had some faith. The secret sword is hidden in the deepest and most heavily guarded place in the world. Even if you manage to penetrate that place, if you hold that sword, you will be transformed into a cursed being, neither dead nor alive, like its previous owners. Even if he is a vicious warlock….”
“Then why are you running away? “I don’t think you have any business.”
“Because I know the weaknesses of the Infinite Sword and the existence of another Demonic Sword that can fight against it. Those who covet the magic sword have always been like that. “Once they achieve their goal, they always come to kill me because I know more than they need to.”
“That means….”
“… I have heard intelligence from your principality. The dwarves of the Cancelo Mountains were sealed in a place deeper than hell. It is the third most powerful among the Dwarven Kingdoms. But, but….”
He couldn’t raise his head.
***
A foggy road.
I was walking on a foggy plain, as if I was on the way to the Thorn Garden dormitory.
Hazy feeling as if drunk on drugs. I was dreaming.
Where am I walking? I went on for a while and stopped at a certain point.
A black lake stretched out before my eyes. The lake was as quiet as if it were in a cup, without any ripples.
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It was like the smelly lake we encountered in Barbisia.
I squatted in front of the lake. Then he lowered his head and looked into the water.
There was no way to see the inside of the lake, which was dyed black. Instead, I saw a shape reflected in the waves.
Someone other than myself was reflected on the surface. One arm was missing, and part of the flesh on the face had rotted away and was turning a grayish-black color.
It looked more like a corpse than a person.
Is this my reflection? I moved my arms and pinched my face. The flesh was intact and both arms were intact. I looked down at the lake again. The man reflected there had a different facial appearance than mine. Then it wasn’t me.
The figure reflected in the waves opened its mouth and said something to me.
‘Who are you?’
And then everything I saw in front of me started to blur.
And the dream ended. After coming to consciousness from light sleep, I slowly raised my eyelids.
How long had he been asleep in the healing room? My eyes were dry and my vision was blurry, but I could tell that it was late and the sun had set.
I blinked a few more times and saw a person’s face blurry in the darkness. A place so close that your breath can touch it.
Am I still dreaming? ?
When I came to my senses, what was in front of my nose was… It was Luna’s face.
She made eye contact with me and just blinked her cat-like eyes with a very embarrassed expression.
“Lu… me?”
“…… !”